Gaming machines such as mechanically driven slot machines have been a staple of the gaming and entertainment industries for years. With the advent of computers, electronic forms of gaming machines such as video slots, video bingo, video poker, video keno and video blackjack have emerged and become increasingly popular. Such electronic devices continue to grow in popularity with the development of enhanced computer-generated graphics and sounds, making them more attractive to a wider audience of participants.
With the recent growth in the electronic gaming machine market, competition between manufacturers to place their equipment in available venues has become fierce. When selecting which machines to put into their facilities, the operators of gaming establishments give substantial consideration to their patrons' perception of a game as entertaining and exciting.
To attain this goal, casinos frequently employ progressive gaming systems in which gaming machines are linked together to allow players to compete for a common award or “progressive jackpot” in addition to the prizes paid for play at the individual gaming machines. In such systems, a plurality of gaming machines are electronically linked to a central progressive controller or server which augments the progressive jackpot by a portion of the amount of money bet at each of the linked machines. The jackpot grows rapidly because multiple players are contributing to the jackpot at the same time. The amount of the jackpot is displayed at the individual gaming machines, on a central display or both. When one of the linked gaming machines hits a predetermined outcome (e.g., a certain arrangement of symbols on a slot machine), the progressive jackpot is awarded to the player obtaining the winning outcome.
Gaming machine systems employing such progressive jackpots are well known in the art. For example, one system teaches a progressive jackpot system in which a proportion of the jackpot is awarded to eligible players at each linked machine. Data from each of a group of linked slot machines is sent to a central controller which determines the value of the progressive jackpot by accumulating a predetermined fraction of the money bet at each linked machine. When a progressive jackpot-winning outcome occurs at one of the linked machines, the winning machine signals the controller, which then announces the win.
A variation of the typical progressive jackpot gaming system is the so-called “secret” progressive jackpot. In such a system, the winning gaming machine is the one that causes the progressive jackpot to reach an unknown, predetermined value, as opposed to the typical winning combination. In such a system, the game controller, using a random number generator, establishes a jackpot-win amount between maximum and minimum values. The controller also establishes an initial base or “seed” value for the progressive jackpot. The jackpot amount is incremented each time a game is played at one of the linked gaming machines.
After each increment of the jackpot, the controller compares the new jackpot value with the previously established jackpot-win value. If the new value is less than a jackpot-win value, the controller merely updates the jackpot value. When an increment to the current jackpot value causes the value to reach or become equal to the predetermined jackpot-win value, the result is communicated to the winning linked gaming machine and the appropriate payment of the jackpot-win amount is made to the player.
One need with these and other systems is that of attracting new players through exciting game features. Another need is that of encouraging continued play by players already using the games.